Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m sweating like a pig!”? Where did that come from? Pigs don’t sweat at all. They have no sweat glands. That’s why they wallow in mud – to keep cool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig
What other phrases/proverbs/sayings in common currency make no sense? And why did people start using them?
(Mods – not sure if this belongs in GQ or IMHO. Move as you will.)
That’s kind of like the old “sweating like a whore in church” phrase. Everyone knows that whores don’t go to church.
“Susan eats like a bird.”
“Oh, she consumes nearly her own weight every day as a matter of course?”
“I could care less” is often mis-used in the place of “I couldn’t care less,” and implies that one actually cares when they are trying to say that they in fact do not care.
They were selling cod loins at Sam’s Club yesterday. Last I checked, fish didn’t have hips…
How about “lightning rod”? Used to mean something that draws trouble to itself. In fact, lightning rods do not attract lightning; they dissipate the ground’s charge into the air, thus preventing lightning from striking anywhere near the rod’s grounding-point. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_rod
I imagine “eating like a pig” came first, and people started to associated “like a pig” with “a lot”.
When I was a little boy, I didn’t know that the common version was “sweating like a nigger.” My folks said “like a Turk.” We lived close to the “colored” part of town, and my brother and I went to a racially mixed elementary school. I guess my parents thought their kids weren’t likely to meet up with any Turks.
We boys weren’t allowed to say “nigger,” and I rarely say it now. I flinched when I typed it. Right now, I’m pondering deleting this whole post. Ah, what the hell, you can handle the truth.
When I lived in Minneapolis, I used to get that newspaper from across the river every morning just to read the feature called “Bulletin Board”, which was like a metro-area-wide…well, bulletin board. People would call or email or write in to the editors with their interesting anecdotes and observations on society’s foibles. It was kind of like a print version of the MMP, come to think of it.
Anyway, there was an ongoing conversation about phrases ending with “like a banshee”. Of course, the obvious and original one is “wailing like a banshee” but somehow the phrase fragment got connected to a multitude of things that had nothing to do with Celtic family spirits. “Raining like a banshee”, “running like a banshee”, “working like a banshee”, 'driving like a banshee"…the conversation ran for WEEKS, with people reporting in other examples of banshee phrases that were overheard.
God, I miss Bulletin Board…I need to check out the online version more often.
“Head over Heels”
People use it as if it means “spun upside down”, but that would be “Heels over Head”. I’m normally Head over Heels.
I never did understand where this one came from.
You woke up every hour or two, screamed, and wet yourself?
“Sick as a dog.”
You barfed on the carpet again?
What about the prahse “Nigger-Rigged” Where did that come from besides the assumed meaning that something was put together badly. Or does it have another intended meaning?
As big as a whale
You mean like really huge? Bigger than everything else?
Oh, I guess that one works. Nevermind . . .
Here’s an interesting link. I was intriqued by your “nigger-rigged” question, and thought it may be related to “jerry-rigged.” I didn’t get a relation, but I did find out some interesting stuff about the origins of “jerry rigged” and a few other malapropisms.
I’ve always been rather fond of the double entendre “hotter than a popcorn fart”. 
First of all, calling these “malapropisms” is just plain wrong. A malapropism is using a word that sounds vaguely like the correct word, but is wrong.
Going to the source, some include:
“He is the very pine-apple of politeness!”
“she’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile.”
“…if ever you betray what you are entrusted with… you forfeit my malevolence for ever…”
As for the phrases mentioned, they are metaphors*. And they make perfect sense. They just aren’t literal, but that’s unnecessary. What’s important is the impression the phrase gives.
Thus “Sweating like a pig,” gives the impression of being covered in sweat. The fact that pigs don’t sweat is irrelevant.
One of my English profs pointed out the song
“There are spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle.
As I go riding merrily along
And they sing, ‘Oh ain’t you glad you’re single.’
And that song ain’t so very far from wrong.”
Anyone who’s ever heard the song think the last line means, “the song is correct.” It does not. (Parse it.)
Of course, this all requires some imagination to understand, and, sadly, imagination is in short supply these days.
I’ve never heard the word malapropism used to indicate simple error of this kind. I thought it was generally understood to be the unintentional use of a word somewhat similar to the intended word, which produces a humorous effect, as in, “In 1876, the golden spike was driven at the last rail of the Transcendental Railroad.”
I agree, but I must say that I find the non-literal metaphors far more interesting than true malapropisms. But that’s just my $0.02.
I always pronounced it “jury-rigged”.